Advice on what to do in the wake of a robbery.

[Marlonious]

Thanks everyone who replied... some of you were very helpful. I?m making one last effort to find my stuff today by heading with a friend to the surroudning compra ventas.

The real shame in this, ultimately, is losing my digital recorder, just because I have no way of getting another one in this country (from what I can tell) and need it for work. Not sure what to do about that.

But is it just me or are the people who post on this board evenly divided between wonderful, sensible people and racist, trigger-happy, paranoid, souless assholes? I understand comments like "you are stupid to go into a barrio with anything of real value" (probobly true), but things like "Let the people in the barrios kill each other"? Why would you live in this country if you hated the people here? Even having been robbed in Villa Mella, my time spent in the barrio Mata Los Indios remain my fondest memories of the country, studying music there, spending lazy days playing dominoes and drinking cafecitos, swimming in the river with the local kids. I never had to pay for a single thing there, even though the people were maaad poor, they always provided food or anything else I needed. I guarantee that barrios are not exclusively filled with murderous drug addicts, but some of the best people you will meet.

The fact that I was attacked was the fault of my own carelessness. I?ll be more careful from here on out, but I refuse to spit on the poor of this country like many do on this board.

 

[Lambada]

I guarantee that barrios are not exclusively filled with murderous drug addicts, but some of the best people you will meet.

Oh I do hope a miracle occurs and you retrieve your stuff. And even if you don't you still have your fond memories and absolutely no-one can take those. Well done for a balanced post which doesn't generalise from the few bad guys over to everyone else. Wish you well, Marlon.

 

[Chris]

But is it just me or are the people who post on this board evenly divided between wonderful, sensible people and racist, trigger-happy, paranoid, souless assholes? I understand comments like "you are stupid to go into a barrio with anything of real value" (probobly true), but things like "Let the people in the barrios kill each other"? Why would you live in this country if you hated the people here?

Yes Just like normal life wouldn't you say? Nevertheless, you're referencing a down-to-earth, non politically correct and very pragmatic comment from a knowledgeable expat that has in-depth experience with the soul of the country. The comment is simply pragmatic. Get to know the posters and you'll get a better understanding of the source of the comments. If someone looks at this country without rose colored spectacles, does it really mean that he/she is a souless asshole? I don't think so.

In your situation, now that you've been robbed at gunpoint one time, do you really think you can go back with another set of equipment and be reasonably safe? If I was in your shoes, I'll start working on my own protection. The bad guys got away with it once, of course they're going to try again if they see you with new equipment in the same place. This time they may kill you. We're not talking about the good people here, we're talking about the bad ones. And as good as the good people are, the bad ones are equally as bad. This is reality in the DR. And again, if the bad ones want to kill one another, let them.

Sorry about your stuff. It is hard to replace.

 

[Marlonious]

The end of the story...

I just revisted the DR forums out of inactivity and realized that I never ended up sharing the end of this story...

I went back to Villa Mella, probably against my best judgement, with my friend Giovanni, the Dominican who basically saved me the night I was robbed by finding me and giving me money to go home. He is a musician from Haina and a "cabeza de misterio" or a brujo or whatever you want to call it - and basically the nicest guy on earth, and we became freinds during the coarse of my research.

I knew I wasn't going to get my camera/documents/notes back but I really needed that digitial recorder, because I was travelling Latin America for a year with a grant to study and record music.

Anyway we went back to the niehgborhood by day and played detective, stopping by aquaintences houses and chatting for a while, subtly dropping the story of the robbery and wanting to know if anybody knew anything. I was scared ****less just to be there now, Dominic-innocence robbed. People traded stories of their own robberies. I met nearly everyone in Mata los Indios this way, however.

Eventually we found somebody who knew somebody who knew the girlfriend of one of the robbers. Apparently, he was hiding from the police in the interior because he had killed somebody the other day while robbing a moto. I am extra releived that I didn't get hurt. Turns out they couldn't sell the recorder to the compra-venta so they traded it to a colmado for a night of free beer. I buy it back from the colmado for 1500 pesos. Value - $700 dollars. In thanks, I give Giovanni a bottle of vitamins I had brought from the states. He said he always wanted vitamins.

Best part of the story is that the theives recorded themsleves some 20 times over the coarse of the three weeks that they had the recorder - trying to sell the thing as an MP3 to unsuspecting barrio dwellers, talking with their girlfriends, negotiating drug deals, etc. Kind of incredible artifacts to have.

So it all ended happily ever after, even the shoddy Policia Nacional report sufficed for buyer proctection on my friend's perscription sunglasses, stolen.

Its not always the case that everything goes so smoothly I know, but I'd like to officially thank all supporters and gloat to all detractors. Aun los gringos pueden ser tigueres a veces!

Missing the island dearly,
Marlonious

 

[Lambada]

How simply splendid! Did you ever.......er.....use the 3 weeks of recordings? :cheeky: No, don't tell us!

 

[BushBaby]

Good of you to come back & update us Marlonious. Getting 'ends to the story' doesn't happen often enough I'm afraid so we thank you for your efforts.
(what the heck is 9/12 months in the DR anyway? Just a twinkling of the eye!!:cheeky:!:bunny:!) ~ Grahame.

 

[Thandie]

Hola Marlon,

Enjoyed reading your 'conclusion' to your story and your blog.

The study of African-rooted music in the Caribbean is a big interest of mine.
Too bad Cuba was not one of the countries you travelled to on your amazing year long journey (What an amazing opportunity and I am totally jealous! LOL.).

In my opinion...after travelling in various African countries and Caribbean islands
Cuba hands down has the most preserved African-rooted music (and culture...and refreshingly Cubans proudly embrace their African roots. I loved the fact that it was not 'underground' but alive and thriving in everyday Cuban life).

Were you able to save any videos prior to the theft of your videocamera?
Would love to see some videos and hear some of the music especially from your trip in the DR.

 

[reese_in_va]

Thanks for giving us some kind of closure on this experience. I am happy to read that you have recovered your digital recorder, even with incriminating evidence.
It's clear you have learned from this experience and hopefully others that are new here, reading this post, will think twice about heading off to the barrios without prior knowledge of what can happen.
Thanks again,
R

 

[Chirimoya]

Thank you for coming back and providing the ending to the story, Marlon. I would like to ask some posters to refrain from condescending, point scoring comments.
The OP - like many others who visit the less travelled parts of the DR for their work/research - knew there were risks involved in entering the area with expensive equipment, and despite his material losses he seems to be well aware of all the valuable things he gained during his experiences.

 

[jalencastro]

hey Marlon, sorry to read about your misfortunes yet HAPPY ending to this whole drama! I have been to Villa Mella a handful of times and it is a pretty wild little town. thank goodness I never hung out there late...there are some places there that my instincts said stay away from and or get out of here....on the bright side, you were in a GREAT place to record and learn about history and music. Villa Mella [from my own experience] has the most to offer in terms of African-rooted music and the people/locals to the town proudly display that. It was my main reason to going and visiting Villa Mella and I am glad I was able to see a small part of history displayed so brilliantly. Please do post your work and or videos for us to see!

 

[Castellamonte]

Hi DR1 people -

I recently experienced my first Dominican robbery-at-gunpoint. I was in Villa Mella doing research a little bit too late (6pm or so) at the Fiesta de San Miguel, and on my way to the guagua 6 guys with pistols in hand robbed me and two friends of everything we had - recording equipment, cameras, documents (no passports luckily!), credit cards, my research notebook.... Well, I already know that its stupid to be hours deep into the barrios with all that stuff. Luckily, nobody was hurt and we found a friend who gave us the last RD$200 to his name to make it home to SD.

But I?m wondering what I should do now. The combined value of the stuff lost was, well, pretty high, and my work is kinda paralyzed without recording equipment. I would love to get some of this stuff back if possible. It is overly naive to think the police will be of any help, or that I might find my stuff (a lot of it is pretty conspicuous) by scouriung the surroudning compra-ventas? I went to the center of the Polica Nacional to do the denuncia the day after, but they were pretty incompetant and I don?t think their report was even entered into any system of any sort. Any thoughts?

On this topic, anybody know anything about pro-audio equipment availabillity in the country?

And if anyone is interested, the story of the robbery and of my life here in general can be found at marloniousthunk.blogspot.com.

Best,
Marlon

We're all sorry to hear about this incident and only relieved that no one was hurt...other than in the loss of material goods.

Here are a couple of ideas to help recover current items:

- Go to the local pawn shops, tell them what it was and offer a reward.
- Tell the police there is a reward for them if the items are returned.
- Pass word on the street that there is a reward

...see the theme here? The theme is to offer a reward for the return of the equipment. Sometimes it works remarkably well. Sometimes not. But it never hurts to try.

In the future:

- Get LoJack for Laptops for your computers. You can trace the crooks and nab them in the future.
- Bring along some larger friends <smile>

Hope this helps!

 

[Tamborista]

Eventually we found somebody who knew somebody who knew the girlfriend of one of the robbers. Apparently, he was hiding from the police in the interior because he had killed somebody the other day while robbing a moto. I am extra releived that I didn't get hurt. Turns out they couldn't sell the recorder to the compra-venta so they traded it to a colmado for a night of free beer. I buy it back from the colmado for 1500 pesos. Value - $700 dollars. In thanks, I give Giovanni a bottle of vitamins I had brought from the states. He said he always wanted vitamins.

Here are a couple of ideas to help recover current items:

The OP got her camera back, read the last post!

Happy ending for all, I would love to hear some Villa Mella drum beats Marlo.

 

[catcherintherye]

Go to the local pawn shops, tell them what it was and offer a reward.
- Tell the police there is a reward for them if the items are returned.
- Pass word on the street that there is a reward

...see the theme here? The theme is to offer a reward for the return of the equipment. Sometimes it works remarkably well. Sometimes not. But it never hurts to try.

In the future:

- Get LoJack for Laptops for your computers. You can trace the crooks and nab them in the future.
- Bring along some larger friends

Hope this helps!


If you had read the entire thread, you would know that much of what you suggest was tried by the OP, and the one irreplaceable piece of equipment was recovered.

However, the idea of a lo-jack and "bringing along larger friends" is not only ridiculous, it is ridiculously dangerous.

Large friends against tigueres with guns doesn't equate to a very favorable situation, and even if it did, it would not result in a favorable outcome. No matter who ultimately took possession of the laptop in question, there would be more than a few people hurt, and ongoing repercussions of the type no non-Dominican would be prepared for.

 

[thomas901]

great advice frank the tank about carrying a gun to the barrio...that would have surely gotten the guys brains blown out all over the street that day